As an only child, the mango tree and books were my haven in a lonely, busy world. From high up in the mango tree, I watched passersby and wondered about their lives. I now know that joy and sorrow, the expected and the unexpected make up the strands of life, and words have the power to encourage and strengthen. I desire to write words of hope and encouragement to refresh and strengthen no matter what life brings your way.

Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning...that’s why I write.

“What’s your word for 2012?” many of my writer friends asked each other earlier this year. “Relationships,” “hope,” “believe,” “joy,” and “perseverance were some of the answers.

Though familiar with the practice of prayerfully seeking a word that would influence the way I live each year, I hadn’t concerned myself with it. I had too much on my plate— homeschooling, being a wife, mom, and caregiver while dealing with a degenerative auto-immune disease…or so I thought until I read my friend, Julie Garmon’s post about “surrender”--her word for 2012.

What might my word for this year be? I wondered as I walked into the kitchen.

Trust.The gentle whisper sounded in my heart.

Trust? Do I not trust enough?

Trust. The word lingered through the day. I fell asleep wondering, but how do I trust more?

Five months have passed since that whisper, Five months of walking along the curves and bends on this road we call life…

When I start infusions for Ankolysing Spondylitis…trust

When I hear that a homeschooling mom of nine crossed into eternity mere weeks after her youngest was born …what does trust look like?

When a friend loses her family’s only source of income…how does one trust?